Thor Forums

[RVwife]

Had the MH in for its pre-storage maintenance (engine oil change, generator check, etc). We had been having some "minor" problems with the generator from day 1 - pulsing when trying to charge house batteries (wrote that off to eventual dead batteries), being difficult to start without priming first (thought maybe some bad fuel...) with the service needed light coming on at < 15 hours of use.

Anyhow, our trusty mechanic said the generator carburetor was pretty badly corroded. He said it's a very common problem now that most gas contains at least a small amount of ethanol. We had him replace the carb (ca-ching, ca-ching $$$ but wanted to be ready to go in the early spring)

One solution is to use premium fuel, but that brings other problems and he did not recommend doing so (and RV dealer had also warned us not to on initial inspection). Other solution is to add some gas stabilizer every time we fuel up and store the rig with a full fuel tank. Easy enough (we do store with a full tank, but haven't used additives in the past). He did not have a particular brand to recommend but said Stabil is pretty widely used. (We've used that brand in other small engines, chain saw mix, etc so are familiar with it.) He actually mentioned using the marine additive.

Our mechanic is not specifically an RV mechanic (for that we'd have to go 250+ miles down state). He's a large truck and farm equipment guy, but has a whole lot full of big RVs on his lot as well. Very well respected in the area and we've had years of good service from him on big farm items.

Comments, experiences, suggestions...Any product you have found particularly good and cost effective? TIA